Self-study
P1
Of the more than one thousand people who published memoirs of the French Revolution of 1789, about eighty were women. ███ ██ █████ ██████ █████ ███████████ ███ ██████ ████ ███████ ██ ███ █████ ██████ █ ██████████ ████ █████ ██ ██████████ ██████ ██ ██████████████ ███ ████ ██ ███ ███████████ ████ ████ ██ ███ ██████ ████████ █████ █████ ███ ████ ███████ ██ ███ █████ █████ ████ ████ ██ █████ ███████ ███ █████ ████ ████ █████████ ████████ ████ ██ ███ ███████ ████ █████████ ███████ █████ ███ ███████████ ██████ ███ ████████ ████████ ████ ████ ██ █████ ██ █████ █████ ███████ ██ ██████████ ███ ███████ ███ ███████████ ████ █████████ █████ ███ ██████████ ██████ ██ █████████ ██████████ ███████████ ███ █████████ ███ ███████████ ██████ █████████ █████████ ███████ █████ █████
Phenomenon / Explanation ·
Very few memoirs of the French Revolution were written by women and most were written by aristocratic women
Socioeconomic explanation: literacy was high only among aristocrats. Political explanation: memoirs were published during the restored monarchy which, I presume, the aristocrats supported.
P2
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Skeptics ·
Historians question reliability of memoirs
Are they telling the truth?
Concession ·
The skeptics have a point
Memory fades over time and these are mostly partisan (royalist) accounts.
Critique (of Skeptics) ·
But their doubts can be resolved
Argument 1 ·
Veracity of public events
Multiple accounts allow for cross-verification.
Argument 2 ·
Veracity of personal events
We can use subjective guidelines like whether the events are plausible, etc. to evaluate whether these accounts are true. Okay, so we've set out the guidelines but where's the application? Perhaps that's where the next paragraph will take us.
P3
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Premise (for Argument 2) ·
In spite of strong conformity to prescribed female roles, these memoirists were still socially active during the Revolution
Okay... I think this is setting up for the application of the guideline... The author will relate this to how their subject accounts are reliable, right?
Premise (for Argument 2) ·
Women had varied experiences and participation in revolution
I think these examples are meant to show that the subject accounts of events in the memoirs are somehow reliable?
Conclusion of Argument 2 ·
The accounts of personal events are reliable
And this finding is significant because this "feminist mode of discourse" appears surprisingly early in the historical record.
Passage Style
Critique or debate
6.
Based on the passage, which ███ ██ ███ █████████ ████ ██████████ ██████ █ █████████ ████ ███
a
The depiction should ██████ ██████████ ████ ███ ████████ ████████████
This is stated
b
The depiction should ███████ ████████████ ███████ ███████████
The scholars say that the depiction should be “plausible,” not that it should be demonstrably factually accurate. They think that “more subjective guidelines must be used,” since we’re addressing “personal events known only to the author.”
c
The depiction should ████ ████ ████████ ███████ █████ █████ ████████
This isn’t stated in the passage. The scholars are giving criteria for verifying certain depictions today; they don’t argue that these depictions must have been verified when they were written.
d
The depiction should ███ ██ ████ ██ █ ████████ ████████
This isn’t stated in the passage. The scholars give two criteria for judging the credibility of events known only to a memoir’s author: the described events should be plausible, and the description should be consistent with the author’s character.
e
The depiction should ████████ █ ██████████ ███████ ██ ███ █████
This isn’t stated in the passage. The scholars give two criteria for judging the credibility of events known only to a memoir’s author: the described events should be plausible, and the description should be consistent with the author’s character.